The doors slid closed and Stiles prepared for an awkward silence between them. He was tapping his foot nervously in underused adrenaline. The elevator started traveling up.
"So everyone here seems very agreeable. Very friendly." Stiles looked up to see the thoughtful frown on Derek's stubbled face. His dark brows were cinched slightly in the middle. "Are they like that all the time?"
"Yep! All the time. It's awesome here. The people here are awesome. Which I'm sure is why working here is awesome." The rambling was bad enough, but then Stiles made the mistake of catching Derek's eyes. They were laughing eyes, the kind that shimmered gleefully in knowledge. Because, right, he knew Stiles was lying. Knew in fact because Stiles had given him the 4-1-1 of the company on the planes. Stiles groaned and dropped his head in defeat. "No, of course not. Usually Finstock's shouting out sports lectures to everyone. Jackson hates everyone except Lydia and sometimes Danny. Matt takes random pictures of people which I think is a sign of being psychotic. At least, for him. And this place isn't usually so quiet."
Derek gave out of a huff of laughter. "You amaze me." He shook his head. "Everything is so false here. Stale."
"They're just nervous."
"Of me?"
"Dude. Have you looked in a mirror lately. You're a pretty intimidating guy." Stiles should have been more aware of the fact that he had called his boss 'dude', but Derek was taking in the news with a nod and small smile. The awkward atmosphere that Stiles had imagined didn't seem to exist anymore. Suddenly, Stiles had the notion that he was talking to an old friend. It probably had something to do with the fact that Derek wasn't sighing in annoyance like most people did when Stiles spoke.
Derek looked like he wanted to ask something, but the elevator stopped and pinged and the doors slid open. Stiles froze. It was Malia. She caught sight of Derek and a predatory smile spread across her expression. It was probably meant to be kind and excited, but Malia was a natural predator. She stepped inside to stand next to Derek, not once giving Stiles a glance.
"Hale," she nodded in introduction, taking on her empowered, professional demeanor. "I'm Malia Tate from Research. You're coming up to one of our meetings. I think you'll find…"
"Malia?" Derek interrupted. "Yes, I've heard about your work." She beamed proudly, only to dim when he added, "You two are a couple, right?"
For the first time since the doors had opened, Malia seemed to take notice of Stiles. Stiles tried not to take it personally that Malia's response was to frown. "I can assure you that we are professional when here. But, yes, separate from work Stiles and I do have a personal relationship."
"That's great," Derek said encouragingly.
It was enough to pick up Malia's spirit again for her to state proudly. "Actually, we're planning on moving in together?"
"Is that so?" Instead of focusing on Malia, Derek's gaze fell on Stiles. His brows rose in what Stiles was sure was surprise. "Really? Well, that's good to hear. When was this decision made?"
"A couple of days ago. We're looking forward to it, aren't we Stiles?"
"Yes," Stiles readily agreed, though he felt a little off about doing so because Derek wouldn't stop staring at him.
Then the elevator stopped, pinged, and the door opened. All three of them stepped out for the meeting. Which was going to be long, Stiles just knew it.
As everyone settled in, Stiles tried to slink to the back, his back resting against the wall, away from the crowd of people he was sure had never stepped front in the room before now. Derek took his seat and Malia stationed herself up front. The last couple of people trickled in, all of them with attentive expressions and notepads before them.
"Thank you for coming," Malia started, her posture straight and her tone as welcoming as she was capable of making it. Her eyes briefly fell on Stiles and it was instinct for him to smile at her encouragingly and give her a thumbs up. "As you know, we're here to discuss the data that has been compiled to represent our profits as well as the statistics of people we are able to reach out to. At this point Wolf Security…"
At this point, Malia trailed off, a far away look in her dark eyes. Stiles knew that look. It was the one she wore when she had caught herself in being insensitive but struggled to change her wording to something more tactful. It didn't happen often; Malia didn't tend to care who she insulted. Here, however, she definitely cared about how the boss would view her and Stiles could see the momentary conflict she waged inside herself.
She took a deep breath and, deciding to go head on into what she was going to say, "Well, Wolf Security hasn't been doing well. It's been doing fairly badly in fact. We've dropped in sales and we have lost contracts that we once had. And why is this? Because we're not meeting the standards of our demographic."
Derek raised his hand. "And who is our demographic?"
"Currently our target group is small businesses and the everyday person on the street."Malia stated confidently as if it had been a test question she knew she was going to ace. "The problem is that, unfortunately, our products are not meeting our suppliers's demands."
She continued talking, but Stiles didn't hear a word of it. And not because his thoughts had gone away from him as they often did, but because was struck dumb by what Malia had unintentionally done - or maybe intentioanlly, who knew. The products, she accused, were not up to standard, and the products, everyone in the room knew, were the responsibility of the design team. Unless she meant to imply that it was the people who were making the products, but that couldn't possibly be because all products were tested before being promoted, and so far all products had met the design team's expectations. Which meant that Malia had thrown the design department - Stiles's department - under the bus.
He looked around the room to see most of those in attendance nodding monotonously. Only Finstock seemed to have noticed who she was accusing of poor work quality (Erika and Jackson having not been present). The Coach's features darkened, his jaw tightening. Any other time, he would have cut her off the moment she had said it, challenged her accusation, but with Derek sitting right beside him, Finstock seethed in silence.
Stiles was so caught up in his own shock that he didn't notice Malia had ended her presentation until Derek stated, "Thank you Malia. I just want to go back to something you said earlier. You said the designs aren't meeting our suppliers' demands?" Stiles pushed himself against the wall further, wishing he could sink through. He had even changed the wording, Stiles thought in humiliation. Yet Malia still nodded. "How do you think this could change?"
But Stiles couldn't' just let her drag his department in the mud with everyone nodding mindlessly with whatever she was saying. "I don't think it's our products that are the problem." Every head turned to him, some blank but most with irritation. It didn't' matter to Stiles; he pressed on. "I think we just need to change who we market to."
"We're marketing to the people that sell our products Stiles," Malia argued, staring at him incredulously as if to say that he needed to stop before he ruined this for her.
"Please explain," Derek prompted, staring at Stiles expectantly.
Stiles gulped at the attention, but followed through, "Our target is to everyday people on the streets," he used Malia's phrase, "so we need to advertise to them on the streets." His declaration was met with silence. Stiles's heart rabbitted in his chest so loud it could be heard by his own ears. All at once nervous at his outburst, Stiles fidgeted. "I mean not on the streets streets but like to them rather than just to the companies that sell out products. Because then…"
"We get it Stilinski," Finstock stopped him just in time, because Stiles could feel the rest of the ramble on the tip of his tongue. "And I agree. Our advertisement is good," he nodded to the marketing director and received a respectable nod in return, "but we should advertise to a more public domain."
There were murmurs after that, small discussions that Stiles had gone back to not listening to. He was only brought to awareness when everyone started to leave and Malia went out of her way to shove past him. Seriously, he thought, he was against the wall.
"Good job Stilinski," the Coach set a heavy hand on his shoulder, putting more strength in the action than he probably meant to.
When he left, only Derek and Stiles remained. Derek stepped up to him, eyes wide with a pitying gleam. He opened his mouth to speak, but Stiles beat him to it. "I know what you're thinking. But no." he shook his head and turned to head out. "Just no."
